LitAnalysis:Fiction with Freud the fiction discussion series will continue this year in collaboration with the Carnegie Main Library in Oakland.  This year all the discussions will be hosted by Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center faculty member Mario Fischetti, Ph.D. psychotherapist and psychoanalyst in private practice. 

We will be featuring some wonderful works of fiction. So start reading and join us for the following dates and discussions.

All discussions will take place from 2-3 pm in the Conference Room A on the ground floor of the Main Carnegie Library in Oakland. 

March 23- The Sense of An Ending –Julian Barnes

Winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize--One of The Atlantic's Best Books I Read This Year,
The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication. The protagonist Tony Webster, a middle-aged man, contends with unexamined aspects of his life when his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony thought he had his life tidily worked out. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

April 27-Ten Thousand Saints  --Eleanor Henderson

Enter back in time. The novel is set in the electrified streets of New York City in the 1980’s.  Three individuals: Eliza, Jude, and Johnny arrive trying to escape—from everything that has gone wrong, big and small, in their short lives.  Their fate is sewn together by  their parents’ mistakes and their own, and by the accidental death of a teenage boy.  The three pursue the promise of redemption in the unlikely underground scene.

May 25-The Cat's Table—Michael Ondaatje

From the author of The English Patient, comes another spell-binding tale of unusual circumstance.  Set In the early 1950s, this is the book of a lifelong journey that begins with a single and spectacular sea voyage.  an eleven-year-old boy  boards a ship bound for England.   His seating assignment  at mealtime proves fateful.  He is seated at the “cat’s table”—as far from the Captain’s Table as can be—with a ragtag group of “insignificant” adults and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin.  As the ship crosses the Indian Ocean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another under the noses of unsuspecting, or perhaps inattentive adults .  In this precarious position they are first exposed to the magical worlds of jazz, women, and literature by their eccentric fellow travelers

June 22-Night Circus –Erin Morgenstern

Last year we featured the debut novel ,The Tiger’s Wife, and this year we feature this first novel by Erin Morgenstern that has garnered critical praise.  Considering herself a spinner of “fairy tales” this book pulls from the author’s imagination a dark and dangerous world where an ambiguous circus arrives unexpectedly and sets up breathtaking displays.  The circus, open only at night, is the backdrop to a tale of deadly competition and desire. 

This paper presents ideas in progress about the development of an American Independent Tradition, which the author has tentatively called intersubjective ego psychology. The American Independent Tradition filters and develops ideas found originally in the writings of Hans Loewald. It constitutes a middle ground between egopsychology and relational psychoanalysis.

The tradition recognizes the analytic relationship but preserves the individuality and autonomy of each participant.The paper compares and contrasts the American Independent Tradition with the British Independent Tradition and wonders whether we can find independent traditions in other parts of the analytic world. This presentation of ideas in progress is meant to spark discussion and reflection about the trajectory of psychoanalysis in the United States, about the uses of theory,and about alternative ways of conceptualizing and using the relationship in clinical work.

Nancy J. Chodorow, Ph.D. is Training and Supervising Analyst, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; Geographic Regional Supervising Analyst, Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center; and Faculty, San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. She is Lecturer on Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and Professor Emerita of Sociology and Clinical Faculty Emerita, University of California, Berkeley. Her books include The Reproduction of Mothering (1978, 2nd. ed., 1999); Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory (1989); Femininities, Masculinities, Sexualities: Freud and Beyond (1994); The Power of Feelings: Personal Meaning in Psychoanalysis, Gender, and Culture (1999); and Individualizing Gender and Sexuality: Theory and Practice (2012). She is author of numerous articles on comparative psychoanalytic theory and technique, Loewald and the Loewaldian tradition, sexuality, the psychology of women, and gender. She is recipient of numerous awards, prizes, and fellowships. Dr. Chodorow is in private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Join PPC for an evening exploring how an analyst works. If you would like to know more about deepening your work with your clients, or have been considering furthering your training these open sessions will provide you with an opportunity to explore psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy through "clinical moments" shared by analysts.

The discussion will be followed by information about our programs.  

The event is free, but there is a $25 administrative fee for those seeking 2 Continuing Education credits for attending.

You may attend either session or both. 

Wednesday, April 10th --Stacey Wettstein, Ph.D.

Monday, May 13th--Paula Moreci, L.C.S.W. 

7-9 pm 

PPC Library

Registration is required

Refreshments will be provided

Space is limited

How did psychoanalysis come to define itself as being different from psychotherapy? How have racism, homophobia, misogyny and anti-Semitism converged in the creation of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis? Is psychoanalysis psychotherapy? Is psychoanalysis a "Jewish science"? 

In this presentation, Lewis Aron will provide an overview of his recent scholarship on the history of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis and their implications for practice and education.  Inspired by  the progressive and humanistic origins of psychoanalysis, Lewis Aron and Karen Starr pursue Freud's call for psychoanalysis to be a "psychotherapy for the people."  The present a cultural history focusing on how psychoanalysis has always defined itself in relation to an "other."  At first, that other was hypnosis and suggestion; later it was psychotherapy. 

Thomas Janoski, Ph.D., a faculty member of Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center, and a Psychoanalyst and Psychotherapist in private-practice will be the discussant. 

Lewis Aron, Ph.D. is the Director of the New York University Post doctoral program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.  He is the author and editor of numerous articles and books on psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, including A Meeting of Minds and the Relational Perspectives Book Series.  He was one of the co-founders of the journal Psychoanalytic Dialogues.  He has served as President of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American Psychological Association; founding President of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP); founding President of the Division of Psychologist-Psychoanalysts of the New York State Psychological Association (NYSPA).  He is the co-founder and co-chair of the Sandor Ferenczi Centet of the New School for Social Research, and an Honorary Member of the William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Society.  He practices and leads numerous study groups in New York City and Port Washington, NY.  

Friday, February 1, 2013

Bigelow Conference Center

4338 Bigelow Blvd.

7-9 pm

2 CE Available 

This program was made possible through the support of William Cornell and the Keeping the Work Alive Series. We would like to express our appreciation for the opportunity. 

Bon Jour Monsieur Shlomi will be our next film in the Analytic Flicks series.  You won't want to miss the assortment of characters in this quirky, sweet, funny coming of age story that shows the power of untapped potential. 

Our featured guest speaker will be Assistant Superintendent, David May-Stein.  Prior to becoming Assistant Superintendent, Mr. May-Stein served in a variety of educational settings and roles. He started his career in Pittsburgh Public Schools and has worked for two decades to advance the educational system. He taught at Pittsburgh Langley, the Pioneer Education Center, the Secondary Education Center and Allegheny Middle School.  Mr. May-Stein then served as an administrator.  From 1996-2011, he served as the acting principal of the Alternative Education Center, the acting dean of students at Allegheny Middle School, the dean of students at Prospect Middle School and the principal at both Knoxville Elementary l and Pittsburgh Colfax K-8.  He will bring a wealth of knowledge from his experience to share with our audience.  

Eleanor Irwin, Ph.D., will provide the psychoanalytic perspective of the film. Dr. Irwin is a psychologist, a Child and Adult Psychoanalyst, and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at the University ofPittsburgh. She is a past president of the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center, where she is on the faculty and Chair of the Child Analysis Committee. Dr. Irwin has made films and written extensively about children and their families in treatment and community settings. In addition to serving as a preschool consultant, she is a co-founder with Judith Rubin, Ph.D., of Expressive Media, Inc., a non-profit organization that makes teaching and training films in mental health.

Bigelow Conference Center

4338 Bigelow Blvd.

6:30-9:30 pm

Suggested donation: $10 / $5 Students

3 Continuing Education Credits Available for $25 Administrative Fee

Join us for Footnote a film exploring the impact of ambition, rivalry and jealousy on the relationship between a father and a son.  The film, by Joseph Cedar, was well-received by critics.  Hannah Brown, of the Jerusalem Post, wrote, "Cedar uses dramatic cinematography, music and visual effects to signal that this is a film about an earth-shaking battle, at least in its protagonists hearts and minds." 

The discussion will feature faculty member, David Orbison, Ph.D. Psychoanalyst and Psychotherapist in private practice, and Alan Meisel,JD, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Law at the University of Pittsburgh. 

Suggested Donation: $10 / $5 Students

3 CE Available for $25 Administrative Fee 

Friday, November 30th 

6:30-9:30 

Bigelow Conference Center 

4338 Bigelow Blvd. 

Oakland 15213 

Parking at Soldiers and Sailors is recommended.

Street parking is also available.

Handicapped accessible. 

Study of Smoke--Rust Colored by Claire Hardy

Smoke and Ephemera: A Discussion of Art will feature works of Claire Hardy and other artists on display at the Galerie Werner located in the historic Mansions on Fifth.  The discussion will be a free event for members, and will be open to the public. Due to the popularity of our last member event, we respectfully request that you let us know you are planning to attend so that we may comfortably accommodate everyone.

A $10 donation is suggested for non-members. 

Join Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center faculty member, Mario Fischetti for a discussion exploring the basic tenents of psychoanalytic theory and the contribution Freud made to mankind. This is a free member event, and is open to the public. 

A $10 donation is suggested for non-members. 

Refreshments will be offered.



The treatment of borderline and narcissistic patients is one of the most challenging areas in mental health. Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) is an evidence-based psychodynamic psychotherapy developed by Otto Kernberg, M.D., and colleagues that combines the depth of a psychodynamic approach with a structure that facilitates working with personality disordered patients. A growing body of clinical experience and research shows that TFP can help patients achieve character change, resulting in more stable, productive, and satisfying lives.

Two years ago Dr. Barry L. Stern came to Pittsburgh to present a day-long overview of TFP. This year Dr. Stern will return to the PPC to provide a more in-depth TFP training experience that will take place over 3 days and involve 3 independent components.

On Friday, Dr. Stern will provide a 3-hour introduction to TFP based on the 2010 training. The Friday component is open to individuals with no prior TFP training, as well as individuals who wish to attend for purpose of review. Saturday will be divided among three issues central to the conduct of TFP treatment: contracting; technical neutrality and countertransference management; and the treatment of narcissistic pathology.

The Saturday component is open to individuals who have some prior TFP training, which includes the 2010 PPC training, the Friday overview, or other TFP training.

Sunday will feature a peer consultation group lead by Dr. Stern, and modeled on those developed and lead by Drs. Kernberg & Yeomans at the Personality Disorders Institute in New York. This component is limited to 14 participants and will include the presentation and discussion of two cases drawn in advance from the group. Advanced registration is required.

Become a Friend of Psychoanalysis and receive $5 discount on all our Continuing Education programs in the 2012-2013 Academic Year! 

Friday: 6:30 -9:30pm  $45 General Admission/ No CE or $55 with 3 CE

Saturday: 9am-4:30 pm $65/General Admission (No CE/ includes boxed lunch)

$100 with 6 CE  (and boxed lunch included)

Fri.& Sat. $100 /No CE  and $130 9 CE

Friday, October 19th, 7:00-9:00 pm (2CE/CME
Available)

$30 General Admission (No CE) $45 w/ 2 CE

& Saturday, October 20th, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm (6 CE/CME
Available)

$45 General Admission (includes boxed lunch) $100 w/ 6 CE

Both days $60/ No CE $120 8 CE

Registration form below

The Psychoanalytic Center (PPC) is delighted to present a Friday
evening lecture and Saturday workshop featuring Drs. Alexandra Harrison and Susan Sherkow, two prominent Analysts who are also accomplished researchers and teachers. They will present their
fascinating work with young children through the use of frame by frame analysis of videotaped play sessions. Drs. Harrison and Sherkow will illustrate their work with emotionally disturbed
youngsters, including those with ADD/ADHA and on the Autism spectrum. Their presentation offers vivid examples of the meaning-making that is possible when adult and child are empathically
attuned.

Microanalysis of the videotapes, taken by Drs. Harrison and Sherkow in
therapy sessions over time, clearly demonstrates the importance of reviewing what is often overlooked or forgotten in moments of intense interaction. Capturing the minute details of nonverbal and
verbal communication can enhance understanding of the deeper layers of meaning and their associated connections. Observing the vocalizations, gestures, glances, body movements and affect-laden play
interactions on tape, the fragments of communications that are ordinarily missed can help therapists to understand how to enhance the deepening of attunement between individuals.

Viewing the videotapes also demonstrates what may disrupt the process,
making repair more difficult and clinical interaction less effective. Moments of understanding and synchrony are created by capturing the child's signals, which can facilitate attachment. These
videotapes clearly illustrate how crucial it is to be attuned to the other's emotions, while attempting to match those feelings in timing and intensity. When the child's experience is communicated
accurately, true interactional sharing is possible, leading to understanding and change. This kind of interaction can be utilized in schools and homes, as well as in the treatment room with positive
results.

Although Drs. Harrison and Sherkow will demonstrate work with children,
the clinical skills they discuss apply to those who work with all ages. Empathic connection with another that can lead to emotional regulation and control is a skill that therapists, teachers and
parents can learn, replicating the hoped-for good mother/good child interaction that leads to healthy emotional and physical well-being.

Special thanks to Pennsylvania Association for Infant Mental Health for support of our program!

Crumb explores the life of Robert (R.) Crumb, the underground cartoonist famous for developing the role of the antihero in comics and for his sharp satire of the 60's and 70's generations. Much of Crumb's work focuses on his own anxiety, depression, and sexual obsessions. Director, Terry Zwigoff, a long-time friend of Crumb's, is allowed an access to his subject that has no boundaries.

Critical Acclaim:
From the New York Times:
The art critic Robert Hughes calls Mr. Crumb "the Bruegel of the 20th century." That may be overstating it. But the film's many examples of Mr. Crumb's work present a vision of American life as a phantasmagoric gallery of grotesques that is as gripping as it is harshly funny.
From Rotten Tomatoes:
So well-regarded was the documentary Crumb (1994) that the failure of it and of the same year's equally acclaimed Hoop Dreams (1994) to result in Oscar nominations caused a media furor which forced the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to revamp its documentary nomination process.

Discussant Matt Markon, LCSW, J.D., Psychotherapist in private practice and PPC Candidate
With guest presenter Joe Wos, Executive Director of the ToonSeum
Stacey Wettstein, PhD, Psychologist and Psychotherapist in private practice will moderate.

3 Continuing Education Credits Available See Pricing Details When Purchasing Tickets

Come explore the origns of creativity and the way the shared experience of art...in a multi-media presentation of artworks of Magritte, Bacon, Freud and Kahlo.

Creativity and Aesthetic Experience:

A Psychoanalytic Approach

Presentation by Jean-Michel Quinodoz, Swiss Psychoanalyst and Author

Discussant, Judith A. Rubin, Art Therapist and Psychoanalyst

Emeritus Member of PPC

Friday, June 8, 2012

6:30-9:00 pm

Chatham University Eddy Theatre

2.5 Continuing Education Credits available (see below for more information)

Co-sponsored by:

Chatham University Department of Film Studies

Pittsburgh Association for Psychoanalytic Thought

With special thanks to Bill Cornell and the Keeping Our Work Alive series

For more information www.pghpsa.org or 412-661-4224

$5 students and candidates

$15 general admission (no continuing education credits)

$35 for 2.5 Continuing Education Credits with admission





Come experience another exciting film and discussion hosted by the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center!

He Loves Me He Loves Me Not is a 2002 French psychological thriller that follows the thoughts of artist/café worker/house sitter Angelique (Audrey Tautou) and married cardiologist Dr. Lorie Le Garrec (Samuel Le Bihan). Following the movie, stay for a discussion of erotomania, stalking and relationship violence.

Analytic Flicks
June 1, 2012, 6:30 PM
Bigelow Conference Center
4338 Bigelow Blvd., Oakland

Following the film, Kathleen George, PhD, noted Pittsburgh mystery writer and Pitt professor, and Matt Markon, LCSW, therapist in private practice and former lawyer and consultant to the Washington DC Police Department, will discuss the themes and content with Stacey Wettstein, PhD, psychologist and psychotherapist as moderator.

Mental health professionals requesting CMEs/CEUs must preregister on the website.
Suggested donation- $10/$5 for students



LitAnalysis: Reading Fiction With Freud

Saturdays, 2 - 3 pm at the Main Carnegie Library

The PPC has teamed up with the Main Carnegie Library in Oakland to provide a chance to really analyze fiction. PPC Faculty and Candidates will provide insight and analysis of popular fiction works in an informal discussion held at the Main Carnegie Library in Oakland. All discussions will be held on Saturday from 2-3 pm in Classroom A.

(Free and Open to the Public)

March 24, 2012   "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" discussion with

                             Mario Fischetti, Ph.D., Faculty PPC, Psychoanalyst, Psychologist in

private practice

April 28, 2012     "Little Bee" discussion with Candidate Matt Markon, J.D., M.S.W.

in private practice

May 26, 2012      "Room" discussion with Eleanor Irwin, Ph.D., Child and Adult

Psychoanalyst and Psychologist in private practice

June 23, 2012     "The Tiger’s Wife" discussion with Mario Fischetti, Ph.D.

PPC provides these opportunities for the public to be engaged in the vital community of thought that exists in psychoanalytic themes.

Analytic Flicks

Save the date for: Bill Cunningham New York

The next film in our series will inspire you to:

a. dress to impress

b. ride a bike

c. keep reinventing yourself into and beyond your eighties

d. ALL OF THE ABOVE

Come examine the life of contributor to the New York Times Fashion magazine, Bill Cunninham, who uses an almost analytic method to spot what is being expressed on the streets of New York through the lens of fashion. More information about the speakers and the topics that will be discussed will be posted soon.

Friday, April 13, 2012

6:30-9:30 PM

Bigelow Conference and Reception Center

4338 Bigelow Blvd. (See Map)

$10 Suggested Entry Donation/ $5 Students

3 CE Available ($25 Administrative Fee)

Snacks Available (Donation Requested)

Pre-register space limited use link below

1/2 Sandwich available for pre-order $5



Analytic Flicks provides an opportunity to use film as a way of looking at the human experience through the analytic lens. Psychoanalysts and others in the mental health field will provide insight into the material presented in the films. The series is offered on Friday evenings at the beautiful Bigelow Conference and Reception Center at 4338 Bigelow Boulevard in the heart of Oakland, with convenient parking in Soldiers and Sailors Garage (The conference center is located next to the 20th Century Club -- some GPS systems may not correctly navigate to this address).

 The presentation will begin with a ten-minute showing of On Empathy,
Kohut’s last presentation (1981). It completes the circle in the spotlight he
shone, since 1959, on the concept of empathy and its fundamental nature
within psychoanalytic observation and data-gathering. My own pathway in
analytic training which I shall try to illustrate, molded particularly in
comparative supervisory encounters, led me to recognize the extraordinary
power in grappling with the implications in Freud’s groundbreaking
discovery, dening the domain of psychoanalysis: “psychic reality” – that is,
inner reality – “as the decisive kind.” e concept of empathy, understood
not as a theory-specic or technical stance, but as intrinsic to our mode of
listening and observation, may then be viewed as a central dimension
illuminating this intrapsychic domain, -- our psychoanalytic data base.
Clinical examples including citations from the work of Freud and Kohut,
commentary from the late Japanese psychoanalyst, Takeo Doi, and
observations from infant research illuminated by Louis Sander, will be
oered for further elaboration.

Educational Objectives:

1. To discern more subtly diering cues by which individual reality may be revealed in listening to and observing patients’ associations and behaviors,

2. to describe the distinctively analytic mode of observation of the workings of patients’ minds, and

3. to note added dimensions in the illuminative power in a stance of ongoing struggle to listen, and the rewards in capacity for discovery. 

2 CE Available for this presentation for psychiatrists, psychologists and Social Workers

From the My Name Was Sabina Spielrein Website:

Docudrama is a delicate genre especially when it is dealing with history. Many people fell into the temptation of mixing dry facts with colourful romantic images. The filmmaker Elisabeth Márton, who has already proven her ability to realize well thought out films (among others "Way of the Winds”, where she illustrates the life and work of the photographer Lütfi Özkök), finds from the very beginning a happy balance between sensationalism and contemplation, between emotion and knowledge. Márton and her team create an elegant and aesthetically challenging puzzle emplying conventionell methods like old diaries, yellowed photographs and crumpled papers. The short dramatic scenes appear like quickly hurrying shadows. They form and underline a spiritual condition and do not simply function as a dramatic device. That’s good, particularly in relation to the tragic end which shows how Sabina Spielrein and her family once again found themselves trapped between two unforgiving rulers: Stalin and Hitler. Her brothers became victims of Stalin’s terror. Sabina Spielrein was killed in 1942 in Rostov on Don by Nazi soldiers.

Helena Lindblad, Dagens Nyheter 14.10.02

Márton’s deft re-enactments and the actors’ dramatic readings of Spielrein’s own words tell a chilling story, bringing to light both the work of this pioneer and the dark side of psychoanalysis. Documentary and drama carry Spielrein’s life into the crosshairs of warring ideologies (Communism, National Socialism). With a rare gift for melding subjectivity with biographical facts, Márton brings Sabina Spielrein back to life, body and soul.

B. Ruby Rich, Toronto International Film Festival 2002

Presentation following the film:

Psychoanalysis: A Cure by Love Traversing the Edge of the Psyche and Body

Mario Fischetti, Ph.D.

Psychoanalyst and Psychologist in Private Practice

Volunteer Faculty Member Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center

And

An Aborted Attempt At Coming Into Being: The Failure of Freud and Jung in the Case of Sabina Spielrein

Marlene Goldsmith, Ph.D.

Clinical Psychologist in private practice

Poet

Moderator

Prajna Parasher, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Film Chatham University

Filmmaker

Bruce R. Baker, Ph.D. has turned his life long facination with linguistics into a passion for helping individuals wtih physical disabilities.  Dr. Baker, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, is founder and president of Semantic Compaction Systems.  His company, based in Castle Shannon, develops, translates, and licenses iconic interfaces for computers in a variety of languages.  He was compelled to develop Minspeak in 1980 after meeting intellegent people who were physically unale to write, talk,, or use hand signs.  He used his classic linguistic training to create a patented visual languats system based upon ancient heiroglyphics.

Joseph Hinchliffe, M.D., is a volunteer faculty person with Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center. He will present on Silence, issues of treating people with severe communication disabilities, technical and psychoanalytic perspectives, and the Person Within: working with a non speaking individual, and communicating with non-speakers.

Jennifer Lowe is a Minspeak user and elloquent provider of the perspective of those individuals with severe communication disability. She is Executive Director of SHOUT and is featured in the film "Only God Can Hear Me."

PPC wishes to thank all the participants for their time and energy.

Sign Up Now for Spring Session           Writing Your Life: A Journey In Self-Discovery

Inspired by the book, "Growing Old: A Journey of Self-Discovery," this new 'life writing' course was offered to all members of the community, young and old, as a time to reflect on your self-narrative and develop a more cohesive sense of self. Participants requested we offer another session.

Classes will be held in the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center

Wednesdays from 7:00 to 8:30 pm

Cost for the whole series is $40 (Scholarships are available)

The next series will be offered in April! If you are interested, email administration@pghpsa.org

and PPC will alert you of when to sign up and what dates will be offered.

Thank you for visiting! We hope to see you at some of these events.